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DFE 8 Notes (Zane)
SCENE 8.1 ' ' The party resumes where they left off, in an odd sort of blank-slate scenario after the Gate of the Dead was bombarded, along with Drik’chik by some unknown figures. Wakinyan had gone into the Gate to rescue the kids, which he did. The figure on top of the building unleashing the fire appears to be the one straight from Jarlain’s performance. Wakinyan had given a Mend Spirit potion to split among the children. The effect is unknown, and is where the session left off. Drik’chik s gripping the gates of the dead. Three of the party notice that the crystalline tinkling to the right is a fountain - it’s not a liquid, but rather crystalizing rock that is simply absorbed when it hits a pool on the ground. There are ten children from ages 3 to 12, semi-translucent, flayed, burned, and screaming, who are now next to Jacinteleq. Loic rushes towards the children. He pulls out bandages and attempts to apply them - but his hands pass through the child. As he does this, however, the child runs away from Loic and towards the other children, obviously in greater pain. The creature with the fire whip growls at Loic, who then challenges the figure to heal them himself, if he’s so intent on standing still on top of the building. The spirit dragon bellows out in ancient Khla Nakran, and the Huntress barks something at the Hunter, who then move away. The figure on the roof then bellows at them, whose voice has gone from a wind in the woods to a storm in the woods. The Hunter and the Huntress then turn around to face him. Jain is sort of hiding behind a wall upon seeing the figure on the building. Loic makes a gesture of good faith towards the children, pulling out a candy. One of the children reaches over and up at Loic, and his hand tragically passes through the candy. Deucalion puts on a slapstick puppet show for the children to distract them while the party comes up with a solution. One of the larger children guides the rest over into a more compact group. Ademar suggests that he buries the kids bodies. The children’s real bodies do not appear to be burned. Ademar begins moving the corpses towards the collapsed basement. Loic puts bandages on the children’s real bodies, and it appears to have some diminished effect on their bodies. Wakinyan goes over to the children, casts Bless on some of the plant needles he has, and tries to use them on the kids. One of the children in front of Wakinyan has changes in their wounds as if being bandaged (due to Loic over near the bodies). Kakra recognizes that the children speak a very ancient Greek. Ademar begins to dig out more of the basement. Between Merkha and Kakra, they know about Athenian customs. Deucalion changes his performance to add a verbal component, in Greek. Loic continues to bandage some of the bodies that he can see. Leonus moves to Ademar and uses a tablet to move a larger body of earth - they now have enough space to bury ten children. The Hunter and Huntress are now out onto a platform with their fire-shaped creatures (the spirit dragons ‘children’). The whip has reached a full length, and it wraps around the largest child, bringing them up towards the man with the whip. The child is wreathed in the whip, and her screaming reaches a high pitch as she is held in the air. Jack is circling the whole scene repeatedly. The two children that Wakinyan was facing now appear to have more bandages, and look very similar. Kakra attempts to explain to the children that the needles will lessen their pain. The mass grave is prepared, and Ademar begins the burial. When Loic finishes bandaging one body, Ademar buries it. Loic rushes into the building to recover the body of the eldest child, and brings it out. Leonus notices that the child is now being held stretched out vertically, screaming even more, and has red hair that is now blowing in an absent wind. Deucalion keeps up his performance. Wakinyan hollers at Jack, who does not hear him. Ademar begins to go over to the Hunter and Huntress. The instant that Loic begins to bandage the eldest child, the man with the whip bellows, reaches into his pocket, and tosses something over the side of the building. Cheaton intercepts whatever was thrown, and the thrown object shatters, dealing three acid damage to Cheaton. Jacinteleq, now done helping the spirit dragon, attempts to converse with the man with the whip- he tells her to shut up. The girl is unwreathed from the whip, he takes her in one arm, kicks the green crystal off the roof, slides down a rope, and releases the child, who goes and grabs another one. Kakra understands what the eldest child is saying, who is telling the others to come and do as she says. Her name is Igaia. The other child is now wreathed in the flame whip, and similarly begins screaming even louder. It is clear that Igaia is now corporeal. Loic notices that the body of the eldest is now gone. Leonus runs towards to the man with the whip. Ademar continues trotting towards the Hunters, but he is unable to walk on water, so he doesn’t continue approaching. The girl hushes Leonus as he opens his mouth. At this point, Colonel Eilon asks where Loic is, who is still bandaging bodies. As the big green crystal hits the Voyd, it blows up in large bursts of light, which refract into the other crystals, which become “burnt hulks.” Wakinyan begins to clean off Cheaton as he takes another one point of acid damage. Jack carries Jacinteleq over to the Huntress, and begins attempts to converse. Ademar begins to swim over as well. Jacinteleq speaks to them in Khla Nakran. Orin is breaking the crystals for a reason unknown to the Hunter, but he is there to undo the abomination done by the children’s people. They were sacrificed by their culture for torture. The Hunter is confused by Orin’s having thrown acid on the party. Leonus builds a campfire, and at this point, the large mechanicus takes a step, lurches until it is over an incorporeal child, who then vanishes. Something magical had happened. It appeared in the giant glass tube of the mechanicus. Wakinyan immediately drops Cheaton then, and tries to usher the children away from the mechanicus. Loic then rushes out the door, having heard the mechanicus. Another child is sucked up into the mechanicus. Kiel sticks his head outside of the window upstairs, says oh my, and the machine stops. He says he can get the children out, with time. The party spends time talking with Kiel about the situation. The Hunter confirms that Ademar’s soul has been fully restored, and advises that he wash in normal water within three hours. Once all the children’s bodies have been restored, he goes back on to the building, says his job here is done, and then turns in a circle, producing green leaves, and afterwards is not seen. Igaia says that Orin wasn’t a jerk, but that he had little time to enact his solution. Two of the fire children fire circle towards Cheaton, but he stops them, and they back off. Loic distributes his candies to the children. Wakinyan wonders if the children are from the same culture as the one that had the Greek back at the ritual well that Ardeth had been using. The mechanicus stomps back to its garage, children intact. Wakinyan converses with the Hunter about the party and the events that had occurred. Igaia was born in the year 23. The Kholokhai did not exist here in the year 23- so Igaia and her culture use a separate timeline. Wherever the children came from, it’s not on the Kholokhai. They come from “Aishiba,” a name seen on the ritual well. It’s not in or near Kholokhai. Jacinteleq has a date along which to identify the age of the children. ' ' SNACK/LUNCH BREAK (party discusses what to do with the children) The air is split by the sound of a hunting Na’ma. This immediately prompts Leonus to usher the party and people inside. Wakinyan escorts the children back to the boat. The sarcophagus is a tomb of the great Giant leader. The children were rolled up, sort of suffocated, then unrolled, then repeated until they died of exhaustion/suffocation. Leonus offers the children a fresh start in the Draconic Combine. There was a Gnomish invasion that had strained the children’s culture. Igaia is a hetaira - a symposia. She is well-educated, could play instruments, akin to Geishas. Kakra has never heard of a hetaira at the age of twelve. Igaia washes herself and her hair in the crystal fountain, and they all wash in it. They go inside to grab clothes. Wakinyan gives Igaia a mephit Ice dagger. The Hunter has been watching, and then says that “all of you have done something rather amusing here. You have not simply rescued the children, you have brought their souls out of death, and been a part of making their bodies come alive. You’ve ended their torment, and perhaps most important, you have fetched them back their hearts. None of you seem to have the slightest about what you are doing, but nevertheless, have done more than we could. He says that he owes the party favor,” then fire circles away. The party begins to make plans to enter the crypt, as they had previously. Dana is assigned as the caretaker of the children on the boat while the rest of the party is off in the crypt with Igaia. She explored some of the tomb against the wishes of her elders. There is the scream of another Na’ma from the other side of the river. The party sees a growing green thing, and Jain says that it shouldn’t be as big as it is. On this plateau, there are a lot of “swirling influences.” Leonus hypothesizes that the breaking of the crystals may have done that. Jacinteleq uses Friendly Forest to try and identify the creature. The lavender creature goes quiet, but it is wracked with pain. It is enjoying what sunlight that there is. It had been overloaded with magical energy. It is most certainly not apparently hostile. It crawls away and goes down the corridor to the crypt. Igaia’s hair is sparkling, most likely from the crystalline fountain. There are lots of plants all of the sudden blocking that party’s way. The party is discerning a method to get the children to safety, then loop back to enter the crypt. When the party gets back to the boat, only two hours have passed for them - the party also knows that the curse is locally based - it ‘should’ apply equally in time depending on position. The party proceeds to investigate and deal with the plants first, before heading into the crypt. It is very dark among the narrow, dense corridor of plants along the city streets, Loic tries to use his terrain knowledge to see if any of the plants are dangerous. There are roots that are permanent and heavily grown. When the party advances, Loic identifies a really dangerous plant - a cannon plant, which fires poisonous pods that could penetrate even armor. When you come within range, it will immediately eject the projectile. It’s tactile/auditory trigger. The party, using the ranger’s knowledge, bypasses the plant. The group then finds themselves in a street in front of a very interesting door. There is a slight shimmering across the inner circle. It is probably some kind of gate or ward. Loic touches it with a stick, which then sizzles and burns. Eechum goes “eek!” as he gets out some kits, saying that the party will be there for some time… He disarms at least sixteen traps, and says he thinks he got most of them. The party goes through the gate, and see some odd-looking plant with a whole bunch of characters and sigils on it. Merkha and Kakra are brought up to look at it, who instantly identify it as a map of the city. There are stones that can be depressed, and the party hypothesizes that it’s a map for some transportation system. All of this is on top of a maintained grass, even recently mowed. There are no visible grass-cutting tools around. The party can recognize that each place on the stones are unique to locations in the town. There is a sharply defined square where you can stand. The party stands in awe. Pause in notes because it’s just searching the whole place. Eechum declares no secret doors in the whole place. One stone corresponds to the stone rectangle in the center. The party sees what appears to be an infinite stone passage, that is purely solid and flat. Leonus tries to use stoneflow, but it shatters the surface, and he takes six damage. It then appears to re-grow. The ceiling is glowing, almost as if under sunlight. Leonus suggests that the party bring Anne Smith to investigate the rock. The party spends time fuddling with the system. Some of the rocks are older than others, most likely confering how and when different parts of the city were built, after its initial construction. Also, some walls were added later on, indicating perhaps a move to isolate the system from what could have been publicly accessible at some time. Leonus attemps to use Stoneflow on some of the newer materials. He does the operation while using Jaicinder’s Dragonscale shield. Merkha is trying to figure out the system magically. Deucalion establishes TLP link with a party member, Jacinteleq, who will communicate to the party whether the button works in transporting the subject to the indicated location or not. Leonus presses the button that corresponds to the fort. They appear in the top floor of the fort, confirming that the system appears to work. There appear to be no obvious symbols or magical devices that correspond to the magical system in the tower. Deucalion presses the same button as Leonus did. Because Leonus and Jacinteleq were standing where they arrived, they then reappear in the room. Inanimate objects do not seem to be transported. Jacinteleq says that the stone rectangle in the center is not hollow. Leonus and Jacinteleq are sent through into the rectangle. Inside is a sarcophagus. It is made of silvery metal. It has the face of a skeleton with some kinds of things in its hands. There is a long inscription. The writing nor style match anything seen before in the city. The party decides to leave the sarcophagus alone, for now. Before leaving, they make a copy of the inscription. Sarcophagus is not Egyptian, but has things in its hands, a claw device with five barbed, sharp points and a single-tailed whip. LUNCH BREAK (ended until the end of the game, so we didn’t have notes for all the shenanigans in the crypt.)